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Beat the Streak Report: Memorial Day Weekend Edition

It was a big gravy train in Streakland yesterday, as six of the top seven picks each got hits to combine to extend the streaks of about 40 percent of the whole wide world.

Justin Morneau was far and away the biggest knight in shining armor, single handedly upping the streaks of a ridiculous 19.7 percent of our users just by his lonesome self.

WARNING TIME:

We have reached Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day weekend is glorious.

There will be tons of traveling, family time, frisbees, etc. But, really, all anybody cares about are the BBQs, hot dogs, hamburgers and the 43 percent chance of baked beans being involved. And baked beans are spectacular.

Anyway, this is no time to lose your focus because you are preoccupied trying to see how many skirt steaks you can fit in your mouth.

The key is to make all your weekend selections beforehand so you can live in a worry-free, skirt-steak self-gorging world.

Mark Teixeira’s 2-for-4 evening bumped “kneetgma”‘s streak to an impressive 27 games. “kneetgma” is now officially 47.4 percent on the way to having $3,000,000. Also known as roughly what “MacGruber” took in at the box office last weekend.

111 Comments

Weekend picks of Grande Amigo are very slanted with great pitchers v. great hitters – not the kind of matchs up I’m looking for.
Leaning toward Vinny’s pick or Crawford or M. Young. The pitching match ups look to be more in favor of the hitters with these guys.
North wind blowing in toward homeplate in Chicago today. Not a HR kind of day at Wrigley Field.

i know this may be the dumbest pick anyone has ever made on bts but im switching my pick from crawford to adam everett. hes been good against sheets and sheets is struggling this year. also hes hitting .250 in his last 10 games which is actually very good for him

Now that the game is closed for the day it is safe for me to post my Survivor pick.
I’ve got the Cubs over the Cardinals. There is no way the Cubs should win this game – so I’m going with them. The wind is blowing very strong in from centerfield toward homeplate. This usually indicates a low scoring game.
The balls that Pujols usually hits onto Waveland ave., which runs behind the left field wall should be knocked down by the wind (I hope :):)
My original survivor pick was TB – Take it to the bank that they will win tonight v. ChiSox as they are no longer my pick. lol
It is a beautiful day for baseball in Chicago – if you can get the Cubs v. Cards on TV turn it on. This is a classic baseball rivalry.
Go Cubs!

@ Drag: Thank you! Ludwig brings my streak to a season high of 17 beating my earlier season high of 16 (ichiro reset me). I was joking last night that I was “due” for a 1st inning hit since my last three came in the 8th, 6th, and 7th. Guess I’ll start working on tomorrows pick. Good luck this weekend.

“When life gives you lemons make lemonade.”
Well this is how I’m going to turn my dismal performance in survivor around! Cubs down 5-1 v. Cards. After the game ends, if the Cubs lose, I’m going to Survivior and pick the Cardinals for the next 10 days. The Cards will need a gaggle of Dominican Republic voodo doctors to recover from the hex that dragbunt is placing on them.
deb23 – 17 gamer big congrats on that. Who do you like on Sat?

deb23 – Sweeney of A’s came out on my research which pales in comparison to yours. I also came up with M. Young, Ordonez, Casey Blake. Out of the box picks would be Cano or Eckstein of SD. I am now leaning on players with top notch 7 day numbers.

@ drag: So far I am leaning towards Sweeney (OAK). He is batting .667 against Porcello, lefties in general are batting .357 against him, he is only averaging 5.2 innings per game, has a 5.58 ERA and 1.70 WHIP. The Tiger bullpen has a 4.11 ERA, and hitters have a .258 AVG against then. Sweeney went 1-4 last night, but has a .325 May average and a .381 average in the past 7 days. I’ll see what he does tonight and search for a back-up pick in the mean time.

deb where did you gets those stats because the crap about the tigers bullpen is completely wrong. sweeney has hit porcello well but porcello’s stats are decieving because hes pitched much better the last few starts. also the tigers have the top bullpen in baseball right now with a 2.56 era and a .314 avg against which is the 7th best.

@ Schenk: I see the difference now. MLB.com shows the entire pitching stats, while you can separate the starters from the bullpen stats on espn.com. You are correct about the bullpen stats for the Tigers. Thanks for the heads up!

the entire tigers entire pitching staff has a 4.11 era but the bullpen by itself has a 2.56 era and a .314 avg against which is good for a bullpen. im just warning you that there is a very good chance that sweeney goes hitless tonight

“i know this may be the dumbest pick anyone has ever made on bts but im switching my pick from crawford to adam everett. hes been good against sheets and sheets is struggling this year. also hes hitting .250 in his last 10 games which is actually very good for him”

Sheets has been great lately and .250 is still not very useful.

The Tigers may not be hesitant in swapping him out late in the game either.

@All: Appears the suspended game finally updatd.
@dragbunt: Maybe change your Survior strategy to start Sunday vs tomorrow. Got a good feeling Silva will be 7-0.
@schenk015. “No selection” almost always among top 20 picks for some reason (averages about 30+ a day). But when early games are on, it can rise to the 70’s. Go figure, it takes over a week to even show up on page #100 & nearly 3 weeks for page #3 and then they let their pick just lapse? I wish they’d donate their streak to me instead ;)
@champion_88: Regarding my CHC-STL prediction from yesterday; still think a CHC series win is doable. Note: Rookie is not Garcia. I now live 15 minutes outside STL and knew before MLB confirmed that a rookie would be called up for Sat’s game, but just wasn’t sure which one. Hoping Sliva 7-0 tomorrow & Wainwright gets hit well Sunday cause not a ton of faith in Demp right now.

.314 ? If the Tigers bullpen is “holding” opponents to this average of .314, that seems like a good batting average to me and not so good pitching? Please fill me in?
Sticking with the Card rookie v. Cubs Silva tomorrow.

I picked Denard Span on Friday and the reason is he is hitting .407 over the last 7 days. He bats leadoff and is hitting .362 at home and Twins are home on Friday. He is my sleeper for today and my choice.

Also, that .314 batting average against for the Tigers’ bullpen sounds HORRIBLE!!!

Their stats are supposed to be BETTER than the starters, since they can throw 130 pitches of energy into 30 pitches and I have seen few starters allow that many hits without getting sent down to the minors.

Also, that .314 batting average against for the Tigers’ bullpen sounds HORRIBLE!!!

Their stats are supposed to be BETTER than the starters, since they can throw 130 pitches of energy into 30 pitches and I have seen few starters allow that many hits without getting sent down to the minors.

Unless you are Charlie Morton.

im not saying that .314 is great im just saying that they have the 7th best opp batting avg which means 23 other teams are allowing the opposing team a higher batting avg. so the .314 in comparison to the league avg is good

Yankee Stadium is a friendly place for hitters and HR’s in the daytime so I’m going with Jeter in BTS and HR BTS.
Taking Cards over Cubs so that my hex in picking winners in Survivor will bring the Cubs home as the winner on Saturday. lol

Well tomorrow I’m taking Ordonez against Anderson. Anderson is just coming off the DL and will be rusty and Ordonez hits him at a .750 clip so that is my pick. As for a sleeper for tomorrow. I would say Jason Bay. Hitting well lately and will continue that tomorrow.

I’m staying away from Geoff Blum who I had first selected. His 10 for 17 off of Harang is tempting but he is 2 for 20 in his last 10 games including a pinch hit 0 for 1 yesterday. He has trap written all over. I’ll take Jeter instead.

!!! I had Miguel Cabrera for Friday – then scratched him, figuring he might not have his head in the game after flying home for the birth of his second child. Then he hits THREE HOME RUNS. Guess he was feeling it! :) Happily Ordonez took my streak to 7.

Jeter singles in the first v. Huff. I’m thinking that Jeter could do the same thing in Sunday’s game v. the Tribe’s hittable Masterson.
deb23 – Start up your computers! What is your analysis looking like for Sunday? You are on a major caliente streak.
Jeter looks promising on Sunday or maybe the lefty bat of Cano v. the righty Masterson(?)

LOL @ Drag… My pick for tomorrow is 100% a lefty from NYY. Not sure if its Swisher, Cano or even Tex at this point. Leaning towards Cano, but lets see if Swisher bats 2nd again. Also, lets see who, if anyone, gets the day off. Sure hope Huff is okay after that ball hit off his head from the bat of ARod. It looked pretty bad.

“I’m staying away from Geoff Blum who I had first selected. His 10 for 17 off of Harang is tempting but he is 2 for 20 in his last 10 games including a pinch hit 0 for 1 yesterday. He has trap written all over. I’ll take Jeter instead.”

@drag & deb: yea on sunday definately go witha lefty NYY you could pick Jeter too if you want I’m confident that he will get a hit but I’m picking Cano for the second day in a row which goes against pretty much my only rule but right now on paper he has the best chance of getting a hit with his avg. against lefties and Masterson’s high opp. avg. I probably will change to Jeter ultimately

I can’t believe that Yank/Indian game. 400+ pitches, 12 pitchers, 26 hits, and 24 runs. Who is left in the bullpen for Cleveland tomorrow? Wonder how long Masterson will last? Are the Yankee bats (less Tex) tired after today?

Check out OAK vs. Max Scherzer. Seems he’s still trying to find his grove this year and was sent down to the minors earlier this month where he pitched well (2 Wins, 15.0 Innings, 0.60 ERA, 0.40 WHIP, 17 Strikeouts (10.2 K/9), 2 Walks (1.2 BB/9)). Did Max find his grove in the minors?

“THE HEX” – I’m now 0 – 5 in Survivor for the past 5 days BUT today it worked for my home town Cubs. I have been the “kiss of death” for any team thay I’ve taken lately. So I took the Cards today v. Cubs and you know what happened! The Cubs won. I’m taking the Cards again tomorrow in Survivor.
Robinson Cano is looking good for Sunday or is he looking too good?

Unfortunately, many of us that didn’t pick the Fish are back to zero too. I’ve been on such a prolonged “2-3 Hits then Reset” pattern that I honestly don’t know who to pick any more :(. I know it’s just frustration and maybe I just need to load up a few days of heavy hitters, sit back and don’t analyze, and hope to get a quick 5 hit streak going.
Angels could be in trouble and worth considering betting against in Survivor for the next few days. With Morales’ broken leg and Torii not likely to play for a few days; Angels wins may be hard to find.

@dragbunt. Hope Wainwright gets hit well today. I’d like to see the Cards drop 3-games behind the Reds. And the Cubs gain a game on the Cards. Red-Cards & CHC-PIT series start tomorrow. If Cubs can sweep the Pirates, then the Central will look quite different. Cubs been playing well against top-rated teams; but they are playing to their opponent’s level & if the do that with the Pirates again, another good opportunity may go by the boards.

@dragbunt. Crazy blog page. I post a reply to your comments and the posting gets inserted 2 above yours. So, trying to sign-out/sign back in, to see if these get posted after yours ;)
Hope Wainwright gets hit well today. I’d like to see the Cards drop 3-games behind the Reds. And the Cubs gain a game on the Cards. Red-Cards & CHC-PIT series start tomorrow. If Cubs can sweep the Pirates, then the Central will look quite different. Cubs been playing well against top-rated teams; but they are playing to their opponent’s level & if they do that with the Pirates again, another good opportunity may go by the boards.
Crazy blog page. I post comments to

I’m staying with Cano again today after having initially picked Pedroia. Tomorrow I’m still undecided. I was going to go with Todd Helton, but with Lincecum pitching doesn’t sound like a wise choice. We’ll see.

lavolpe – You post about not getting a streak going this year is right on target. It has been extremely tough.
The leader board is pretty bare.
Reds could have a 3rd day of going wild v. Astros.
Going with Cano
Cards over my home town Cubs today in Survivor “The Hex Pick Day 2.”

“I’m staying away from Geoff Blum who I had first selected. His 10 for 17 off of Harang is tempting but he is 2 for 20 in his last 10 games including a pinch hit 0 for 1 yesterday. He has trap written all over. I’ll take Jeter instead.”

lol, that is not a trap.

That is someone the blog writer would probably recommend though!
———-
It was recomended but it seemed like a trap and was a trap, thanksfully I switched to Jeter as Blum went 0 for 4 making him 2 for his last 24.

Top of the first at Wrigley Field: Albert Pujols hits a massive HR over the bleachers and onto Waveland Ave. I took him today in HR BTS – my hex on the Cards may be weakening.
Jeter and Cano both have hits – Deb and Vinny get ouside and enjoy the day!

yeah im up to 4. I think i am going with hanley ramirez from fl. My wife is thinking about bloomquist from the royals. Any thoughts? If anyone is following her streak she changed her nick name to 10percent on the leaderboard.

I’m going with Cano tomorrow. If I do stick with him, it will the first time I’ve ever picked the same player 3 days in a row. But he is just such an unbelievably good hitter right now it’s rediculous. He’s making Morneau look like a Minor Leaguer.

My hex on the Cardinals lasted one day!
Monday:
Jeter and Longoria are logical choices but where has that gotten me recently? So I’m going under the radar with Andrew McCutchen v. Cubs Randy Wellls who got shelled in Chgo on Friday by Cards. Wells faced 6 batters and got no one out.
NYY in Survivor
Pujols v. Arroyo in St. Louis – He could go deep and is my HR BTS pick.

“yeah im up to 4. I think i am going with hanley ramirez from fl. My wife is thinking about bloomquist from the royals. Any thoughts? If anyone is following her streak she changed her nick name to 10percent on the leaderboard.”

lavolpe – The timing of posts is wierd. As I test this is being posted at 2:25pm Chicago Time. What time zone are you in?
Jeter has two hits
McCutensen of Bucs has one to extend me. :)
Crazy rain in Chicago past few hours good thing the Cubs game is in Pitt and ChiSox are off. This is a rare day in Chicago as neither Cubs or ChiSox is playing a home game.
From April to Oct there is rarely a day when one team, Cubs or Sox are not playing a home.

Well I changed to Jeter from Ichiro in BTS and Jeter got two hits before he left the game. It’s a quad injury so he may not be playing for a few days. I had A-Rod in HR BTS and I’m up to 2 in that and hoping to keep it going tomorrow. Drag, is Rios a good pick in HR BTS tomorrow?

vinny – Rios in HR BTS on Tuesday?
Tough call – Harden is a pwoer pitcher who does best on 6 days rest between starts and that is what he is doing tomorrow in Chicago. ChiSox home US Cellular Field is a HR type park. Rios is streaky – he could get ahold of one or Harden could strike him out 3 times.

Well Drag I didn’t even choose him. I chose Ortiz to hopefully get to 3 as wind is blowing out at Fenway. Jeter is questionable for Tuesday as it’s a hamstring. I have Cano for the next two days as O’s absolutely suck but I may change tomorrow or Wednesday to Swisher or somebody else.

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